A group of Bay Area business leaders is casting blame on union leaders for not accepting a deal put forth by BART management to avert a strike that is now expected to start at midnight.
“This will be a catastrophe for the Bay Area that is completely unnecessary, unjustified and will cause untold hardship for the hundreds of thousands of working people who rely on BART every day,” said John Grubb, chief of staff of the Bay Area Council, a local business-sponsored advocacy group.
See all Appeal coverage Of BART’s second strike of 2013 here
The council released its statement condemning the looming strike hours after union leaders announced this afternoon that BART workers would walk off the job at midnight without a new deal from management.
The announcement came after a marathon bargaining session that lasted throughout the night and nearly a week of last-minute announcements that a strike would be averted the following day.
Grubb said the unions “should put BART’s current contract offer to a vote of their members before taking this dire action.”
The Bay Area Council Economic Institute estimates that a strike could cost the Bay Area upwards of $73 million per day in lost worker productivity.
